BP launches the Skills Refinery to support students’ employability

New online portal aims to help students equip themselves for the future world of work

18 October 2018

BP, a leading graduate recruiter, today launched the Skills Refinery, a new global online portal, which aims to improve students’ employability. This will culminate in a global challenge with the winning team of students receiving an exclusive, all expenses paid trip to the 2019 One Young World Summit in London.

The Skills Refinery provides students with the opportunity to test and develop their abilities in five skills areas – critical problem solving, innovation, influence and communication, cognitive flexibility and emotional intelligence. The platform has been developed using the latest digital technologies, to create an online gamified portal, where students will find resources to help them enhance these essential professional skills, while also having fun.

The Skills Refinery will allow students to test themselves, progress their skills by using interactive quizzes, track their own progress and discover what the five skills mean in practice in the professional world.

To add to the sense of competition and excitement, an annual global challenge will be set for members of the Skills Refinery. Launching in December, students will be asked to form teams to compete via video submission at a national level. The national winners will go on to challenge each other at a global level, for the chance to win an exclusive, all expenses paid trip to the One Young World Summit next year, for its 10th anniversary in London.

In its first year, the Skills Refinery will be piloted in five regions – Australia, Azerbaijan, Singapore, the UK and the US, with a full global launch planned for 2019. It is open to undergraduate students in their first and second years of study and is free to join. The online platform is available at www.bpskillsrefinery.com.

Julia Harvie-Liddel, group head of resourcing at BP, said: “At BP we recognise that the world is changing fast. Technology and digitisation are transforming the workplace and the nature of work is quickly evolving. We believe we can play a critical role in helping students ‘future proof’ their skills and better equip them to be successful in an ever-changing world. We don’t know what the jobs of the future will be, but we can give students the skills to prepare for them. We hope the Skills Refinery will enable them to do just that.”

Ends

Notes to Editors

About the Skills Refinery:

The Skills Refinery is a new online portal, created by BP, which aims to improve students’ employability and help them prepare for the jobs of the future.

It launched in five regions: Australia, Azerbaijan, Singapore, the UK and the US. A full global launch is planned in 2019.

It is currently available in English language only.

Members of the Skills Refinery portal will have the opportunity to enhance five skills areas – critical problem solving, innovation, influence, cognitive flexibility and emotional intelligence, by completing specific tasks using behavioural-science based training content. Students will earn points after they take a recall test, which tests them on the content once they have finished engaging with each skills module.

Once a participant has completed all five skills they will be eligible to enter the global challenge. This will be launched in December 2018. Students will be asked to form teams to compete via video submission at a national level. The national winners will receive a prize and go on to challenge each other at a global level, for a ‘money can’t buy’ prize.

About the One Young World Summit

One Young World was founded in 2009 by David Jones and Kate Robertson. It is a UK-based charity that gathers together the brightest young leaders from around the world, empowering them to make lasting connections to create positive change.

It stages an annual Summit where the most valuable young talent from global and national companies, NGOs, universities and other forward-thinking organisations are joined by world leaders, acting as the One Young World Counsellors.